Category: Quick and Easy Projects

Easy projects for younger students

Shane’s Rubber Band Ball

9 year old guest scientist Shane Fearon of Ireland shows us how to make a rubber band ball. I hope other young scientists from around the world will be encouraged to contribute instructions for projects.

You will need:

  • Tin foil (editor's note: "tin foil" is now actually made of aluminum - or aluminium as Europeans like Shane would say)
  • As much rubber bands as you can find

How to Make a Rubber Band Ball

1.Get some tin foil and roll it into a ball.

2.Find lots of elastic bands and star to stretch them on to it.

3.keep doing it till it is as big as u want it and bounce it.

Thanks Shane. And back in the U.S. here is a giant rubber band ball created by Mr. John Buttorff in his workshop in Buttorff's Hardware Store, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. Mr. Buttorff started it several years ago, and now it's so big that lots of the rubber bands snap as he tries to get them on. Although it is about the size of a basketball, it is much heavier. It is very dense because there is solid rubber inside instead of air.

Make a Spinning Button (by Mark and Lelia)

How to make the Classic Spinning Button (and how it's perfect for explaining all 3 of Newton's Laws of Motion.)

     

I first heard from Mark Schilke when he sent pictures and video of a of his amazing water rocket launcher variation that shoots 5 rockets off at once!

Mark and his daughter Lelia collaborated on teaching her classmates how to make the folk toy, the spinning button (aka buzz saw). And I've never seen a clearer, succinct way to explain Sir Issac Newton's famous 3 laws of motion. Here is the explanation of the three laws of motion and instructions to how to make the button spinner.

Mark also sent these related links:

Here is a website showing some noise-making versions of the basic string spinner.
Back when Lelia was in kindergarten, we made a couple of big-ish (8" square) spinners out of corrugated cardboard that were similar to #222. More recently, we had a modern plastic version of #242.(Slater's note: You can find #222 and #242 on this page)

See also these websites:

And of course, one can get as elaborate as one wants with the making of this toy:

Finally, this with the comment, "What were the redneck's last words? 'Hey, hold my beer and watch this!"

Make a Simple Balancing Person

There are many variations of balance toys—all of them interesting and a bit counter-intuitive. In some of my technology classes I’ve shown my students how to weld “cut” nails together to make a balancing person. However, welding tanks are not available to most people. Fortunately, Australian educator Katrina shows how to make a design that anybody can make. Sometimes it takes a fresh view to cut through all the complexity and simplify the construction enough that elementary school kids can build. Thanks Katrina!

Here are the directions in a print-friendly, PDF format.

The trick to making it balance mysteriously is to keep the center of gravity low by making sure more than half the weight below the feet. She accomplishes this with a lightweight foam head and denser modeling clay weights.

The Floating, Spinning Balloon

Floating, spinning balloon with hair dryer. There is no helium, but it flies!

It's almost eerie, the balloon floating in space and spinning furiously like some spacecraft out of a science fiction story! Pointing the hairdryer -- it doesn't even have to be directly under the balloon -- gives you remote control to hover and land. It's quick and easy to make, too.

I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.

More About Moose Calls, Vibration and Sound

If you liked the Moose Call project, you might also like another quick and easy sound project that turns a straw into a reed instrument (saxophones, clarinets, snake charmer's horns, harmonicas and duck calls are all reed instruments).

Here is a page from the howstuffworks people about sound. I really like the animation they have of a bell ringing. It shows how air molecules collide against each other to create a spreading shock wave to our ears. It's a more interesting way to begin to understand sound than still pictures. If you can't see the Flash animation, you can try watching the movie below.

Here is a product which is very similar to the Moose Call. However, instead of a string there is a "tape" with very precise grooves (similar to LP record groves--before CDs) that create words when you pull the string. The phrases are hard to understand. I found "happy new year" to be the easiest to understand.

This page is still under construction. If you know of a good web page about sound, please contact me and let me know.

Make a Moose Call

What you need (see the pictures below)

  • Disposable plastic cup (best) or paper cup or coffee can. You can use other things, but I know these work.
  • Some kind of string, about 2 feet (60 cm) long. I've used cotton string, nylon twine and dental floss. I've even heard of people using shoe laces.
  • Something sharp and round to punch a hole in the cup.
  • Something to keep the string from pulling out if a knot doesn't work (you might not have to do this, but you will if the string is thin like dental floss or with a paper cup. You can use a matchstick or toothpick or twig.

Step 1

Punch a small hole in the middle of the bottom of the cup--just big enough for the string to fit through--and push the string through the hole.

Step 2

There are two ways to attach the string to the bottom of the cup:

Tie the end to the matchstick or toothpick. This is more work but better because you don't have to be as careful about yanking too hard.

Alternately, tie a very big knot on the end of the string that goes through the cup, to keep it from pulling through the hole. I use a variation of the simple "overhand knot." However, I loop it several times to make the knot fat.

How to use the moose call.

Usually, you will need to wet the string. Wetting it serves the same purpose as the rosin applied to bowed string instruments. You might not have to with waxed dental floss. Hold the cup in one hand and the string--near the cup--between thumb and forefinger. Pull. You should hear a noise, and it should be loud.

Here's a short (5 sec) video of some kids making it work.

Ethan Maas of Seattle, Washington sent the following innovation:

I made the Moose Call that's on your site but I made the string a little longer than you suggested. I was feeling lazy and I didn't want to measure it exactly...anyway this made it possible for me to step on the string and pull it taut. It was then I I began to pluck it while loosening and tightening the string. It worked much like a washtub bass. I didn't know if you care about this bit of information (I imagine that you already knew it), but in the off chance you may want to include this on your site...or maybe not....
Ethan

Actually I didn't know, Ethan. Thanks for the suggestion!

I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.

Moose Call

It's hard to believe anything so small and simple could be so loud and educational!

- SciencetoyMaker

The picture and video are from "親子で作ろう・遊ぼう", the website of Gakujinsha, a Japanese non-profit organization. The website is full of interesting projects and funny, good-natured writing. He put powdered rosin on his fingers to increase the friction, tried it out late at night and woke up his whole family. Read more about Gakujinsha here.

I learned about this amazing device from Mrs. Wilma Moore. Her husband runs a science club where he teaches at the First Nations Reserve in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. She said that hunters actually use them when calling in moose.

Aside from the sheer fun of it, the moose call demonstrates the concept that makes acoustic stringed instruments (violin, guitar, cello, banjo) as loud as they are. But don't expect to carry a tune on it. In the More About section you can read about what a sound board* is and how it amplifies sound.

*Violin, guitar, and piano strings press down on a bridge which conducts their vibration to a large, thin piece of wood called the soundboard.

I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.

The Oscillating Woodpecker

Sherry Bergeron at St. Mark's Episcopal Academy in Cocoa Florida did a great job making the oscilating wood pecker with her students.

Mr. Alom Shaha, a physics teacher in the U.K., has made a good video about the woodpecker project.
While you're there, check out the rest of his website, such as his physics demonstrations and projects on YouTube  and other projects he has helped create.

Why doesn't it drop or stop?

Here is yet another clever folk toy that uses science to puzzle and amaze observers. It uses it's potential energy to bob back and forth like a woodpecker. It was redesigned a bit so that even young kids can help make it. The classic version usually uses a tiny spring--as from a pen--but we simply use a rubber band for springiness.